After India’s first bullet train which will ply on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route by 2023, Indian Railways will launch the country’s second high-speed train from Delhi to Amritsar via Chandigarh.

This was disclosed by Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik of the BJP in a press release on Thursday.Malik said that the matter was considered by the Prime Minister (PM)Modi government on his demand. Malik thanked PM Modi, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and the railway minister Suresh Prabhu for this gift to the people of Punjab. 

He said that according to the pre-feasibility report, prepared by a French company Systra in collaboration with Indian Railways, the project will cost Rs 1 lakh crore. The project will be funded by the government and not by any public private partnership, he said. The cost includes that of rolling stock and price escalation.

The train will run on standard broad gauge and the project shall be completed by 2024, he added. The proposed train will cover the 458-km-long route in 2 hours and 30 minutes running at a speed of 300-350 kmph, reducing the travel time between New Delhi and Amritsar by about two and a half hours. 

An express train currently takes around six hours to travel the distance. Proposed stops will be Ambala, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar. The fare will be fixed equivalent to that of Shatabdi’s AC executive class.